Agatha Emiya and the Fifth Holy Grail War
by SatireSwift
Summary: Agatha Emiya was looking forward to ending her last year in high school and going off to college to earn those degrees in Physics and Engineering. However, all is not well in the city of Fuyuki, and for the girl with the wondrous and mystifying inventions, this means trouble. There's some kind of secret war starting among shady individuals using... magic? How unscientific.
1. Chapter 1

The sun crested over the mountains to shine on Fuyuki City, the first rays of the morning light driving away the darkness. The city was split by a river into newer and older sections, and while the more modern part of the city never really slept, the old part was still rather peaceful in the morning hours. Those that stayed in the traditional Japanese houses preferred a more quiet existence, and as such the only noise to be heard in the area was the morning songs of birds.

Until the small explosion, anyway.

In the backyard of the Emiya residence, there was a sizable shed that was emitting a small amount of smoke from the door and windows. Any neighbors who heard the noise or saw the smoke would have dismissed it, as such things had become unfortunately common over the past ten years or so. Inside the structure, a figured coughed and pulled themselves up off the floor, griping the workbench in front of them as they heaved themselves up. The person was girl in her late teens with long, strawberry blonde hair, a curvaceous figure, and a pair of round spectacles on her face.

"Ok…" Agatha Emiya breathed out as she looked at the smoldering pile of metal and wires that used to be the project she was working on. "I think I may have miscalculated the power output just a tad."

She gave a sigh. Well, at least she hadn't gotten too far into it this time. Besides, explosions were part of the natural life cycle of Science. She picked up the mass of materials and looked it over before tossing it into her recycling bin. She would have to melt it down later to get the raw materials back and she had no time for such things now. Given how the explosion had blackened he face and mused her hair, she needed to take a shower before she headed off to school.

As she quickly cleaned up and made her way back into her home, she mentally went over her plans for the next line of devices she was going to build. Ever since she was young she had always been building, invention, improving the things around her. Her fascination with science and engineering only added to this, and as a result a lot of what she made was quite advanced. If not always practical. True she tried to make things that were obviously useful when ever she could, but bouts of mad inspiration being what they were… let's just say that trying to add a relativistic acceleration dynamo to a washing machine probably could have borne out some more thought.

Once in her house, she made her way to the bathroom and showered quickly. Well, as quick as one could with such a large volume of hair, but she had no intention of shortening it. She liked it long, and the unusual color gave her a rather distinctive look compared to everyone else she went to school with. She had no illusions about the fact that she was not of Japanese birth. When her father had found her wandering amid the flames of the Fuyuki City Fire 10 years ago, he assumed that her family had been visiting when the fire broke out. He had told her he searched for them afterward, but with her memory loss of anything before the incident, it was impossible to tell who they were or if they were alive or dead.

Agatha thought back to that day, the first day she held in her memory. It was mostly just flashes of images and sensations; fire, screams, smoke, pain. She unconsciously reached back, touching the burn mark in the middle of her back which she had gotten that day. She supposed it would lucky that it was the only mark she had and it was easily concealed, but she had still never liked it very much. It always looked like some kind of bug to her.

Still, whatever may have happened before, she had loved the man she had come to know as a father. Even if their time had been cut short by the disease he carried. _I can fix you daddy! Science can fix everything!_

She shook her head to rid herself of memories of the past and got dressed. Heading into the kitchen, she was greeted with a rather familiar sight. "Good morning, Sakura." Agatha said.

"Good morning, Sempai." The long purple haired girl replied. Sakura Matou was a year younger than Agatha, but the two had quickly become friends after the elder of the two had gotten some mean girls to stop picking on her. Since then she had become a rather frequent visitor of the Emiya household, such to the point that she would be there most mornings making breakfast. Agatha had always felt kind of guilty about this, but… she was not a very good cook to say the least. It was a trait she somehow inherited from her adoptive father, and with him gone she usually had no choice but to fend for herself and make rather bland tasting food. She had on more than one occasion tried to make a breakfast making machine so that Sakura wouldn't have to do it, but they all kept breaking for unexplained reasons. It was like she couldn't even make food indirectly. Or someone was sabotaging them, but that would be silly.

"I keep telling you to call me Agatha." The blonde haired girl said and she walked over and started putting food on plates.

Sakura merely shook her head and gave a small smile. "Sempai will always be Sempai to me."

Agatha gave a mock sigh of defeat and began rustling through the cupboards. "So what are you making this morning?"

"Oh, just some simple things. Steamed rice, some miso soup, tamagoyaki…" as she listed things off, Agatha gave a glance back to make sure the other girl wasn't looking before opening a secret compartment inside one of the cupboard. She reached inside to grab the item she procured the previous night, but to her surprise it wasn't there. She grasped around blindly for a moment before Sakura's voice changed tone. "Looking for this, Sempai?"

Agatha flinched like she had been caught with her hand caught in the cookie jar, and slowly turned to face the other girl. There in Sakura's hands was the bin of coffee she had been planning on opening that morning. _Honestly, how does she keep finding my hiding places?_ She wondered mentally while she said "Uh… I don't know what you're talking about. But since you seem to have brought some…"

Sakura pulled the bin away as Agatha started to reach for it. "You're not allowed to have coffee, Sempai. You know this."

"Say's who?" The bespectacled woman replied indignantly.

"The school council, the local police department, the local fire department-"

"Ok, I get it."

"Every electronic store in 3 miles, Tokogawa Construction, Fuyuki City Power Grid-"

"Ok I get it!" Agatha yelled, a flush of embarrassment creeping over her face.

Sakura appeared like she was going to continue her lecture, but she stopped suddenly as her gaze fell upon Agatha's left hand, her eyes widening. "Ah! Sempai, your hand!"

"Eh?" Agatha said in confusion before looking at said appendage, and was surprised to see the sight of blood dripping down it. "What the? How did I miss that?" She said as she held her hand up to her face. It looked like there was some kind of injury on the back of it.

Sakura frowned at her. "I heard the explosion. Did you get careless and hurt yourself again?"

"So it would seem," Agatha said with a frown of her own. She could have sworn she had only gotten a bruise or two from being knocked down on her behind, but she guessed she had just been distracted. Oh well, it didn't look like that big of a deal. Agatha proceeded to wash the hand off before pulling some medical tape out of nearby drawer and wrapping it around her hand.

"You need to take better care of yourself." The purple haired girl mentioned.

"I'm fine, I just got a little careless." The other girl waved off. "Now, let's get this on the table. The lay about will be here any-"

Then the front door slammed open and a loud voice yelled out "Sakura! Feed me breakfast!"

"-second now." Agatha finished with a sigh. She took the nearest plates of the counter and walked into the dinning room. Already waiting at the table with an expectant look on her face was Taiga Fujimura, neighbor, assistant teacher, and all around moocher. The older woman had been friends with her father before he passed, and had promised him that she would look after Agatha after he was gone. The only problem with that was Taiga was kind of hopeless and could barley ever look after herself. She came to Agatha's house most mornings to eat the breakfast that Sakura prepared. Agatha wished she could admonish the short, brown haired woman, but she wasn't exactly in a high position as she did nothing to stop Sakura from doing so.

"Hello Agatha!" The woman said cheerfully. "What's for breakfast today?"

"You know, you probably wouldn't be late so often if you made your own breakfast rather than coming here." Agatha remarked, trying to drop a not so subtle hint.

"How can you be so cold to your guardian?" Taiga said as she wept comically large tears. "Where did I go wrong in wrong in raising you?"

"Probably the part where Sakura and I have to take care of you most of the time." She replied dryly before putting the plates down in front of Taiga and herself and digging into her own meal with fervor.

As Sakura came out of the kitchen with more plates and gave her friend a disapproving frown. "You shouldn't eat so fast. You'll get a stomach cramp."

"Can't be helped." Agatha said between mouthfuls. "I promised Issei that I would look at the computers in the Student Council room before school started, so I have to get going." With the skill of someone who had practice of wolfing down meals so that they could get back to work, she finished her plate and hustled to the front door.

Sakura followed after her, continuing to fret. "You don't take good enough care of yourself Sempai. I'm worried of what would happen if you didn't have anyone to look after you."

Agatha felt a small pang of guilt at her friend's worrying, and it wasn't just for the obvious reason. This was Agatha's last year of high school, and she had made it no secret how much she was looking forward to going to college. Sakura, well… her family wanted her to stay and look over the family business (whatever that was), and while her grades were decent, she certainly couldn't get enough for a scholarship. "Well, then I guess I'll have to rely on you for as long as I can." She said as she put and hand on Sakura's shoulder.

The other girl blushed lightly at the contact, but it seemed to lighten her mood somewhat. Agatha gave a nod and turned her attention to the various footwear that lined the floor mat. "Hmm, I think I take the hover skates today." She said to herself as she bent down to slip said implements onto her feet over her normal shoes. The hover skates were named as such as they had powerful air compressors on the bottoms and backs, allowing the wearing to, appropriately enough, skate on cushions of air at rather high speeds. It was one of Agatha's more practical inventions.

"Oi! When do I get my own rocket boot things?" Taiga yelled between mouthfuls from the kitchen.

"When I'm certain that it won't make you a danger to yourself and everyone around you." Agatha yelled back. She turned on the skates with a push of a button and with a last smile at Sakura, glided swiftly out the door and to school.

* * *

"So, are you just going to fix it, or will it be trying to take over the school by the end of the week?" Issei asked with no small amount of humor in his voice from his position on the table.

"Very funny." Agatha replied as she continued to look through the computer's innards. "But you know as well as I do that real artificial intelligence is one thing I haven't figured out yet, any even if I did it would be at least 3 Laws compliant."

"My point still stands that your 'upgrades' the school's computer system can be rather hit or miss." The man retorted. Issei Ryuudou was, aside from Sakura, Agatha's best friend and the Student Body President for their high school, Homurahara Gakuen. He had dark hair and thin spectacles, adding to his image of being an intelligent, thoughtful person. He was also one of the few people at the school who liked her inventions rather than was terrified of them. "Your attempt to wire them up to control a small army of Roombas comes to mind."

"Science is a work in progress." Agatha defended herself before pulling herself out of the computer. "Alright, there's a defect on the motherboard. Likely it was there when it was manufactured and it just took some wear and tear to make it worse. Now you could get a new motherboard…"

"Which would cost money the Student Body can't afford to spend." Issei said with a sigh. "Ok, what's this going to cost me?"

"The usual." She replied with a smirk. Issei always liked to have Agatha around to fix or improved the various pieces of equipment around the school, and in turn he would use his status as President to give her certain… liberties. "I'll be needing the school workshop tonight, in fact. My latest product blew up in my face this morning, so I want to make up for lost time by whipping up the model with the lathe."

"I would have thought you'd have made one of your own by now." Issei commented. "So, how are you going to fix it? Nothing too complicated I hope."

Agatha rolled her eyes. "Fine, I just repair the broken circuit bridge. But I'm still going to try out my latest low resistance alloy." She insisted. "I swear, I'm this close to figuring out this whole superconducting problem."

Issei gave a low whistle. "Really? That's amazing."

Agatha gave a pained grimace at this statement. "Well, at least you think so."

Her friend titled his at this. "What do you mea-" he started before his eyes went wide with recognition. "You got another letter from them didn't you?"

"How the hell is it my fault that they can't reproduce anything I sent them?!" she growled angrily as she tossed up her hands. She was referring of course to the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers, and of her somewhat… rocky relationship between her and them. "I send them prototypes and clear instructions! If you can't do anything after that, then clearly you're just a terrible engineer!" Her voice lowered and she looked off to the side. "They had the nerve to call me a fraud and a charlatan. As if I was some kind of street magician."

Issei put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, I know that you're not a fraud. And they're a bunch of idiots for thinking so. I'm sure that one day when you're a famous scientist and inventor, you'll get them to eat their words in a highly public and embarrassing way."

A small smile came to her lips as she thought about that prospect. "Yes… yes of course. I should not concern myself with such lesser minds. Some day I show them." Her smile widened and became more manic. "I will build creations so grand and powerful that they will have no choice but to accept me! And then, when they are bowing before me and my mechanical behemoths of untold power and destruction, I will make them grovel for their presumption! Oh yes, I will show them! I WILL SHOW THEM ALL! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Issei stood back from the now laughing Agatha, a small smile crossing his lips for successfully making her feel better. Still, when he saw scenes like this, it was a small wonder that most of the school was terrified of her. There actually was a small betting pool on how long before the girl snapped and went full on supervillain.

_Well, at least I know my place is assured in the new world order_, he thought ruefully.

* * *

"And they actually wrote you that? What a bunch of tools." Gai said as he and Agatha moved with each other across the padded floor. Agatha's high school had a surprisingly large number of physical activities that students could choose from when it came to school clubs. Agatha choice for a physical past time was Judo, as she found the best counter balance to working carefully on devices was to just though things around for a while. What she was throwing around at the moment was her friend Gai Gotou, a somewhat excitable if odd young man with a mass of dyed blonde hair on top of his head.

"Yes, well, I probably shouldn't worry about it for now." Agatha said as she went in for the grab but was swatted away. "Once I get to college, I'll have ample chances to prove them wrong."

"You're really looking forward to that, huh?" her sparing partner replied. "I think you're one of the only people here who's looking forward to the actually learning part of college rather than the partying."

"There is only so much I can do here." Agatha said, this time going low. "At a university I will have access to more resources and some of the greatest minds in their fields. Hup!" She said as she successfully disrupted Gai's balance and knocked him to the floor. Standing tall over her defeated foe, she continued. "There I have far more potential to be at my best, and advance the state of mankind. Through Science!"

"If you insist…" he replied, rubbing the back of his head from the fall. "So, where do you think you're going? I've heard that Shin Tokyo University just opened and it's pretty high brow."

"Perhaps, but they're more focused for their Biomedical program. I'm more of a mechanics kind of girl."

"Yeah, but if you combine the two, you could get badass cyborgs!" Gai exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. "And then they could be all super strong and fast, and shoot laser beams and fight crime! For Great Justice!" He shouted as he stuck a pose, causing a few of the others in the dojo to look at him oddly.

Agatha gave him a dry look. "You were watching Kamen Rider last night, weren't you?"

"You're the only one that can make my dreams come true, Agatha!" he said, his hands clasped before him and his eyes filled with pleading tears.

The girl couldn't help but give a small chuckle at this. Gai always was something of a dreamer who wanted the world of TV to become reality. Last week he had asked her to build a super sentai combining mecha. After a moments pause, she said "It truth, I have not decided yet." She had brief thoughts as to the people she would leave behind, but she shook her head to clear them.

"Huh. Most people would be more stressful about picking a school than you." Gai said, his previous excitement gone in an instant. "Then again, with grades like yours, you could probably go to any school you want. I think only Rin Tohsaka has higher grades than you."

Agatha gave a small snort. "You giving me far to much credit. You know I'm nowhere close to the top ranking students." This was the case as Agatha was at best average in most subjects that she did not have a particular interest in (humanities and history came to the forefront of her mind). However, Gai was correct in that she had the highest grades when it came to the sciences out of any student at Homurahara. This had put her into somewhat of an amusing rivalry between her and Rin. Rin was a straight A student, but most of her grades in sciences came from simple rote rather than actual skill, a fact which seem to annoy her to no end for some reason.

It had gotten to the point where Tohsaka's fan club (the fact which it existed Agatha found somewhat disturbing) had come to consider Agatha akin to a villain to Rin's protagonist. Agatha would have found this amusing if it wasn't for the nickname "Madgirl" which they had given her.

"Yeah, but those top ranking students can't turn cars into walker mechs that shoot missiles from behind the headlights." Gai retorted. "Anyway, the club seems to be wrapping up for the day. You should be getting home soon."

"Actually, there's something I have to take care of first."

* * *

Agatha carefully guided the piece of metal she was holding though the machinery, cutting it out into a sort of elongated triangular shape. This was not going to be part of the final product; as she had told Issei, she was making a model (more of a mold really) of the final shape the device was going to be in, upon which point she would craft it using alloys of her own design. It might have been easier if she had started with a wooden model, but after the little mishap that morning, she wanted something a bit sturdier in case it happened again. There was just one little thing that nagged at her as she made the last turn and looked at the finished product.

She had no idea what she was building.

Agatha frowned at the pieces of metal before her. There were two blocks that held the depression to be used as the actual mold along with several curving sheets of metal that were going to be used to press various levels of circuitry into the alloy she was to eventually use. The shape in the mold was an isosceles triangle about a meter and a quarter long that curved elegantly to the point. Still, no matter how she looked at it, she didn't know what it was supposed to be. Even in her most manic and inspired state, she at least had a vague idea of what she was doing.

But lately? She had been getting the urge to build this… thing with nary an idea why. It was like a dream she would forget upon awakening, the details floating at the edge of consciousness, but fleeing when ever she reached for them. She could almost swear she was building a… sword sheath? But that couldn't be right.

Agatha glanced at the clock and gave a small sigh before putting the materials in her personal locker in the school workshop. It was getting late, so she would deal with it tomorrow. For now, she just wanted to get home and draw up few diagrams to see if she could coax some more information out of her head. After she had cleaned up after herself and powered everything down, she exited the building to head back to her locker in the main building. The workshop was a relatively new addition to the school, and as such had to have a new structure built to contain it.

Agatha was very much preoccupied by her own thoughts, which was why she didn't notice anything until she heard a large crash coming from her right. She gave a jump in surprise and turned to look, and what she saw was so surprising that she stopped dead in her tracks to just stare in disbelief.

What she saw was two men, one in a sort of black armor and red cloth, and the other in some kind of blue body suit. The red one held a pair of Chinese sabers, while the other carried a wicked looking blood red spear. The two men were also trying to kill each other, very enthusiastically. It wasn't just the fact that she had stumbled onto apparent death match that held her attention though; the two were moving at incredible speeds, their forms blurred by their movement save for the few moments where they stopped to measure and ready themselves for the next barrage. When their weapons met, Agatha could felt the clashing metal in her body from the several dozen meters away from them where she was standing. _Wha, what is this?_ She thought to herself. _Are these people even human?_

She did not know how long she stood there watching the spectacle before her, but it came to an end when the man in blue paused at looked directly at her. He then said something and grinned. Agatha could not hear what he said from that distance, but she didn't need to. That grin made her blood run cold, and her body locked up in pure unbridled fear. That was the grin a wolf gave a deer before it ran it down. _He's going to kill me!_ She thought in terror. _I wasn't supposed to see this, and he's going to kill me!_

She remained motionless for a moment longer before something snapped in her and she bolted for the school as fast as her legs would take her. She reached the doors and slammed them open, not even slowing as she bolted down the hallway. She heard the doors slam open again behind her, but she dared not look back. She just had to get to her locker. If she could get to her hover skates, she could get away.

She ducked down a few different hallways, trying to lose the man following her. She wasn't sure if it worked, but she heard nothing behind her by time she found herself in front of her locker. Her hands were shaking though, and she nearly cried out in frustration when she couldn't steady them enough to put in her combination. In the exact moment she finally managed to pop the lock open, she heard a voice whisper in her ear. "Hello, my dear."

She screamed and spun around, finding herself face to face with the man in blue. Now that she was up close, she could see that he also had blue hair, and his eyes were a deep crimson. He gave her a wolfish grin as he twirled his spear. "Well, that was a decent chase you gave me, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you now. Nothing personal, but I can't leave witnesses."

The man's spear blurred forward to her heart-

And then was suddenly pulled back just in time to deflect a white saber that had been flying though the air towards him. "Hey, I'm busy here-!" was as far as he got before he had to deflect a black saber as well. A split second later the man in red leapt into view, driving the man in blue back with yet another pair of sabers.

Agatha screamed as she dove to the ground, trying to stay out of the way of very fast weapons that were now tearing up the lockers around her. She frantically pried open her own locker from her spot on the ground and grabbed her hover skates, shoving them onto her feet as fast as she could. She heard someone yelling, but she wasn't listening. She was too focused on getting the straps clipped on and the motor spun op.

When she finally heard the telltale whine of it functioning, she crawled on her belly until she reached the nearby doors to the outside. Sparing one last glace at the fighting pair, she stood up, threw open the doors and speed off into the night.

* * *

Agatha took deep, ragged breaths as she stumbled into her home. She didn't even bother taking off her stakes as she walked into her living room and simply collapsed on the floor, trying to deal with what just happened to her. When it came to crazy things happening in her life, she was normally more unflappable, but this… someone had tried to _kill_ her. With a bloody spear! This was not something she was used to, to say the least.

She lay down on the floor, looking at the ceiling and letting her breathing steady. _Ok Agatha, a man just tied to kill you. What are you going to do now?_ She thought to herself. Thoughts of building automated sentry guns and point defense lasers came to mind and danced through her head for a minute or two. Right when she was considering the best way to get them to differentiate between guests and homicidal maniacs with spears, she realized that there was a much more immediate and sensible solution to her problem: call the police. They would probably want to know about people trying to kill each other on school property.

Feeling somewhat silly, Agatha propped herself up to begin moving towards the phone. That's when she heard a chillingly familiar voice. "I have to say, those are some very interested boots you have there. I know I would have liked a pair back when I was still alive."

Agatha spun around, and was once again terrified to find the man in blue standing behind her. He continued to say "Now, I'm going to have to make this quick before that fake Archer shows-"

That was as far as he got. Agatha was nothing if not able to adapt to new situations, and she had no intention of freezing up a second time. There was a coffee table between her and the man who broke into her home. Throwing out her legs in his direction, she blasted the piece of furniture with maximum thrust from her hover skates. This caused it to go flying at the man and her to go tumbling in the other direction. The man in blue, while surprised, was easily able to smash the offending object before it collided with him. However, that brief second of distraction allowed Agatha to put some distance between the two of them and stumble to her feet, at which point she took off down the hallway.

She threw anything that came within arms reach behind her to slow him down. End tables, lamps, anything at all. She heard all of her makeshift weapons being smashed, but she just needed some more time. Moments later she burst out the back door, skating as fast as she could. Contrary to popular belief, Agatha did not spend all of her time making weapons of mass destruction (she preferred to put her talents to more constructive uses), but she did still have a few prototype weapons stored away in her workshop which she had made out of curiosity. If she could get to the shed, bar the doors, grab a weapon, call the police-

She was suddenly taken off guard when the man in blue suddenly just appeared next to her, seemingly having no problem keeping up with her speed. "Like I said, they're pretty nice," he commented. "But you still can't outrun me!" He lashed out with his spear, and due to the proximity, Agatha was caught by the haft in her midriff, sending her flying back into the shed she had been running to. She also felt a line of hot pain across her abdomen, as the tip of the spear had also managed to graze her before she left its reach.

She landed on the hard concrete floor of her workshop, gasping for breath. Her hand clenched her midriff, a few drops of blood escaping her fingers and landing on the ground. She looked up to see the man standing in the doorway, spear slung across his shoulders as he looked at her. "I have to admit, you've got some fight in you. Hell, if this were another time, I might be taking you out for drinks." He gave a sigh. "But orders are orders. No hard feelings."

Agatha wanted to deliver a few choice words on just how she felt about the situation, but she had no breath to say it. _This is how I'm going to die? At the hands of some maniac for reasons I don't even know? But I have so much I want to learn! So much I want to do!_

As the man leveled the spear and thrust it at her, a single thought went through her mind. _I WANT TO LIVE!_

Suddenly, the world erupted in light. Agatha instinctively closed her eyes, both at the light and in response to the oncoming spear. However, she felt nothing. Instead there was a loud clash, the sound of metal striking something. She opened her eyes to find someone else standing in the shed with her and the man in blue. It was a short woman with blonde hair done up in a bun, wearing blue robes underneath plate armor that conformed to the robes underneath to give it an elegant look. The spear was stopped in front of her, and the way she held out her hands made it look like she was hold an… invisible sword?

With a cry of effort, the woman lashed out with her invisible weapon, and a great rush of air blasted the man out of the shed and tumbling into the yard.

The woman turned to Agatha, her brilliant green eyes staring intensely at the other woman, and she said

"I am Servant Saber. Upon your summoning, I have come forth. I ask of you, are you my Master?"

* * *

A/N: I really think that Girl Genius doesn't get enough attention on this site, so I'm aiming to rectify that. Granted, this probably won't be the best example as I'm basically adopting Agatha to fit within the Nasuverse, but still.

For those of you who don't know, Girl Genius is a webcomic set in a Steampu-, er, I mean 'Gaslamp Fantasy' world. The tag line is "Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly." I cannot recommend it enough if you haven't read it yet.

For Science!


	2. Chapter 2

There were a few heartbeats of silence which filled the shed, during which Agatha's mind went into overdrive. _Ok, so I currently have a man with a spear trying to kill in my backyard. There is a woman with a sword in the shed with me who's asking if I'm her master, whatever that means. To add to this perfectly normal confusion, the man was somehow able to keep up with me in my skates, and the woman, in addition to appearing out of nowhere managed to knock him back over a dozen feet with just one swing of her invisible something. They do not seem to be using the same rules of physical motion that normal people should. My desire to study this is currently being hampered by my desire to live however._

_Oh if I survive, the laws of physics are going to get a serious talking to!_

"Upon your summoning, I have come forth. I ask of you again, are you my Master?" The woman in front of Agatha said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Quickly switching mental gears from analysis to survival, Agatha blurted out "If that means you'll save me from that other guy then yes I am definitely your master!"

The woman nodded at this. "This completes our contract. I am Servant Saber." She glanced out of the shed to where she had knocked spearman, her face hardening. "I will now deal with the intruding Servant." With that, she dashed out of the room faster than Agatha could follow.

Agatha blinked before she hurried to the doorway to see, and she found the woman and man already engaged in fierce combat by the time she got there. Like the fight she had seen earlier that night, the two were moving at speeds that defied normal human limits. This one was made even more a sight by how the woman was wielding an invisible weapon. Or was it one made of air? Whichever the case, as Agatha's eyes tracked the woman's two handed grip make an overhead swing that was only barely deflected by the man's spear, she decided to consider it a sword for the time being until she had more information.

Realizing that she was useless in her current state, Agatha ran back into the shed and towards a trunk she kept in the corner. She threw open the lid and began frantically searching amid the various prototypes and mothballed projects for the item she was looking for. She eventually found it in an object shaped like a modern pistol, save that the body and barrel were enlarged and rounded, and there were a few extra knobs and lights on the side.

While she did not actively consider the possibility of conquering the world, Agatha thought it would be remiss if she never built a Death Ray in case she changed her mind later.

Of course, while this was one of the most advance pieces of technology she had ever built, she had never really pursued it any further than the prototype for a number of reasons, the least of which being she had no use for one (up until now anyway). The Degeneration Rector inside require unstable elements to work properly (she had made do by acquiring old smoke detectors that contained Americium-241), and she hadn't figured out how to keep said reactor from breaking after a small number of uses. The thing could only fire three or four shots before it became a paper weight (with a possibly radioactive core). Normally Agatha would be hesitant to use it given how fragile it was, but considering how the two people outside were fighting at a super-human level, now seemed like the best time to give it field testing.

Agatha ran back to the door, planning to give the swordswoman some support, but quickly found when she got there that the two were moving too fast for her to get a clear shot. The swordswoman blocked a series of rapid jabs, dancing back from the red spear until she stopped, pivoted, and swung at the spearman's side. He had no choice but to jump away, not knowing if the invisible blade was long enough to cut him. The swordswoman then sprang forward to push the advantage, launching a flurry of slashes from all angles.

The spearman was fast enough to block, but in spite of his speed he was still knocked around a little bit by the blows, as if he was weaker that the smaller woman in front of him. Still, he knew how to use that speed to his advantage, as he managed to drop underneath a high arching strike and spring upwards, driving his spear at the woman's head. She leaned back to avoid the blow, the spear scraping along the front of her breastplate before she gracefully back flipped a short distance away.

There was a brief pause between them, and the man began to chuckle. "Well, I just keep meeting more and more interesting women tonight. I haven't had this much fun in ages!" He cocked his head to the side and gave a grin. "You've definitely got some skill with that blade of yours, little lady. Of course, that's assuming that is a blade, but I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that you're the Saber of the War. Still, I'd like to have your real name before I kill you."

The woman stood still with her body firmly in a ready stance, her invisible weapon held out before her. "I am indeed Saber, but I am not foolish enough to give my identity to my opponent this early, Lancer."

"Aw, that's too bad." The man said as he slipped into a stance of his own, spear held high and angled downward. "Because as much fun as I'm having now, I'm going to have to get serious. Maybe if you live, I'll let you know who I am." The air around the man seemed to become charged, and a veritable aura of lethality bled off of him as he began to say "**Gae**-!"

It was of course at this moment, when the man was both standing still and distracted, that Agatha shot him.

It was also coincidentally the moment when Agatha realized that she might have wanted to take archery rather than judo considering how the blue beam of hyper-kinetic death missed the man's center of mass entirely.

This was made somewhat worse by the fact that the spearman somehow noticed the shot just before she made it. Still, it was not a total loss, as the beam ended up clipping through part of his arm and the spear. Agatha expected that it would deprive him of the limb and his weapon at the very least, making it relatively easy for the swordswoman to deal with him. This lead to her being very surprised when the after image faded from her eyes and the man was perfectly fine! Well, the spear did not look to be damaged in any case, though the jumpsuit and skin around the upper arm was very burned. Still, it should have turned it to dust!

The man was also surprised, but for the opposite reason. "Gah! The hell was that, some kind of mystic code? Why the bloody hell did my resistance only block some of it?"

The swordswoman was also surprised, but she managed to keep focused on the man in front of her. "So, you are one of the heroes of Ireland. That explains a great deal about your temperament."

The spearman gave her a scowl and moved to get back into a fighting stance before he suddenly paused and gave an exasperated sigh, relaxing his body as he stepped away from her. "Great. I barely even start to get to the good stuff and my master's calling me back already." With a sudden burst of movement, he flung himself backwards through the air, landing neatly on the walls around Agatha's home. "For what's worth, I'm glad that you turned out to be a Master!" He called out to Agatha. "I'm really looking forward to seeing you ladies again!" The was another quick jump and the man disappeared from sight,

Agatha stood in the doorway to the shed for a moment longer before her body slumped, and she leaned against the frame as she tried to compose herself. It was also then that she took the time to truly feel the injury on her torso. She winced as she clutched a hand to her midriff, a small amount of blood seeping through the fingers. The cut was relatively shallow, but the blow that had come before it probably fractured a rib.

"Master, are you alright?" The woman in blue asked, walking up to her with a look of concern.

"Worse for wear, but I'll live." Agatha replied. She turned to face the other woman and truly looked at her. Her bearing and regal presence were still there, but she was in fact rather small and slim, and her clothing only severed to make her seem more out of place. There were so many things Agatha wanted to ask and say to her, and she eventually settled on gratitude first. "Thank you for saving me."

The other woman brushed this off. "It is only natural for a Servant to defend their Master. There is no need to thank me for such." She gave a small frown. "Though I would ask that you refrain from attacking enemy Servants in the future. Though it wasn't ineffective and you did have the sense to stay back, it would be best if you left the fighting to myself and stayed out of danger completely."

Agatha simply blinked at this and decided it was time to get some answers for this crazy night. "Okay… I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I really have to ask now: Who the hell are you and how and why are you in my home?"

The woman titled her head to the side in confusion. "I told you, I am Saber. If you do not know my true identity, then it is likely for the best that you do not know in the event you are coercer or controlled. As for how I am here… you summoned me." The frown returned. "Though it seems out bond is incomplete. I can only feel a small potion of your prana of what I should. Were you interrupted during the summoning by Lancer?"

That… answered nothing. In fact it just left her more confused than before.

Before Agatha could ask more, Saber (as she had called herself) suddenly looked off to the side. "There is another Servant approaching. Stay here, I will deal with it." Then in a manner similar to the man who had left moments before, she ran towards on of the walls enclosing the yard and gracefully jumped over.

Agatha was left gaping for a moment, but it was brief as she felt something snap inside of her. A superhuman man had tried to kill her twice today, she was injured and exhausted, and the one person so far who might have been able to explain just what the hell was going on had just walked away from her. With a small growl, she switched on the hover skates and dashed after the woman.

It was generally good form for a scientist to get as many facts as possible before jumping to conclusions, and Agatha was going to gets some answers so she could make some god damn conclusions.

She spun up the compressors in her shoes beyond the normal max and gave a great jump when she reached the wall of her estate. She did not manage the grace of the previous two who had done so, but she managed to land on the other side in a semi-competent roll. When she pulled herself up, she was alarmed to find that the woman in blue was now rushing towards a new man, but this was one Agatha recognized. Clad in red and black and wielding a pair of sabers, he was the man that had saved Agatha from the spearman earlier that night. And from the look of things, he and Saber were about to try to kill each other.

A sudden jolt of panic and worry surged through her at the thought of her two saviors coming to harm. "No!" She cried out, and on instinct she fired another blast from her Death Ray at the space between them, hoping to keep them from fighting. Of course considering that the pair was some ways down the street and at an angle from her, there wasn't much space for that. Fortunately she was luckier than her last shot and the two moved out of the way of the beam before it hit them, instead letting it disintegrate a sizable hole in the nearby wall behind them.

It also turned their attention towards her, allowing her to close the distance between herself and the pair before they got over their confusion at the event. Saber started to yell at her "Master! I told you not to-!"

But Agatha wasn't having any of that right now. "I am not in the mood for this!" She shouted, resulting in more confused looks. "I have had I very bad night, and if I don't get some explanations as to who you people are and why you keep trying to kill each other and/or me, I will take you apart to see what makes you tick before I stuff your remains into specimen jars!"

_That… might have been a little too much_, she thought to herself as the blank looks continued. To be fair she was having a pretty bad night. She was also feeling a little nervous as the light on her Death Ray which was meant to warn her about the structural integrity of the reactor was blinking red, but they didn't need to know that.

There was a long moment of silence between the three of them before a new voice broke in with haughty laughter. It was female and rather familiar to Agatha. "So, I suppose that makes you a magus. I must congratulate you on keeping it a secret from me for so long, Emiya-kun."

Agatha turned her head and was more than a little surprised to see Rin Tohsaka, the school idol and her supposed 'rival' standing behind the man in red, a confidant smirk on her face. Her black hair was done up in its usual pig-tails and larger wave in the back, but she had traded her school uniform for a red sweater and a short black skirt with matching stockings. Agatha could only say one thing. "Rin? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh? This is my property, so I think I should be able to do what I please with it. You on the other hand do not have that luxury. I must say, I don't know why you seem so confused about this. It's almost like you know nothing about the Holy Grail War, despite the fact that you are clearly a Master."

"…I have no idea what any of what you just said meant." Agatha said flatly before she grumbled. "Seriously, why can't anyone make sense tonight?"

It was Rin's turn to look confused until her eyes suddenly widened, and then her hand came up to cradle her forehead. "You… really don't know what's going on, do you?"

"Not a clue." Agatha admitted. "Would you be so kind as to start explaining? Also, I would really appreciate it if we could not try to dismember one another tonight. I think I've had enough of that already."

Rin gave her a calculated look, clearing apprising the situation to figure out what to do. Eventually she gave a sigh and began to saunter over to Agatha's house. "Very well. I suppose it would be good manners to let you know what you've gotten yourself into."

"Master! I do not approve of this!" Saber said. "She is an enemy Master and not to be trusted!"

"And I have no idea what that means." Agatha countered. "In spite of everything else, she's probably the only one of you here that can explain this nonsense to me in terms I can understand." She gave a small smile to her and the man in red. "Besides, the two of you have already saved my life once this night. I'm sure I can count one you if she tries something funny."

The two in question looked at each other in surprise, but before any questions could be asked, Agatha was already walking towards her house, right behind Rin who had already let herself in.

* * *

To all appearances, Rin Tohsaka was perfectly calm, but to say that this was not the case would have been an understatement. She was in fact quite angry. She had gone through the trouble of ordering Archer to save Agatha from Lancer and following the Servant back to the Emiya residence to both protect the girl and wipe her memory. However, not only did she arrive to find that Agatha was a magus, but she had used the time Rin's Servant had bought her to summon a Servant of her own! And a Saber, just to add insult to injury!

To think that there had been another magus living in Rin's territory for so many years without her knowing. She had suspected at first when the blond haired foreigner had showed up to school with a number of strange gadgets that defied explanation, but she had somehow never detected any presence of magic from her or the objects, so she had dismissed the other girl as an oddity and moved on. Or tried to anyway, as Agatha turned out to be quite brilliant in her own right, and the two butted heads academically a few times. It was little more than a play between the two of them, never really serious despite what the rest of the student body believed.

Of course, now that the truth was revealed, that meant that Agatha had just changed from an oddity to a true rival.

At that moment, Rin needed to keep control of the situation. Agatha currently had the advantage, this being her home turf and that she had the more powerful Servant, but she was clearly in the dark about a few things. If Rin played this right, she should be able to manipulate the situation to her advantage somehow, or at the very least get some information on Agatha before slipping away to fight again another day.

Walking into the Emiya household, Rin only felt herself pass through a light Bounded Field. It was a subtle thing, and at first glance all it seemed to do was act as a sort of alarm system and nothing more. Then again, she had never noticed anything magical about the girl or her mystic codes at all up until this point, so it was prudent to assume that she had some way of masking their magical presence. The interior of the house was a wreck, most likely from an altercation with Lancer. "It looks like you had some trouble here, Emiya-kun. Since you have been so kind to be my host, I will clean this up for you." Rin then pricked her finger with a pin and applied some of the most basic magecraft she knew to make repairs to the scene before her. As the drop of blood hit the floor, gouges in the wood healed, fabrics mended, and furniture righted themselves to their proper places.

For some reason, Agatha looked at the room in amazement as this happened. She turned to Rin and asked "Is your blood filled with nanomachines? If so, how did they replicate and spread so quickly without consuming any visible amount of matter?"

Rin looked at the other girl dumbly for a moment, having no idea what any of that meant or how to respond. This wasn't the first time she had a conversation with Agatha that ended up using terms she was almost certain were made up on the spot, but she had hoped that Agatha's knowledge of magic would give them some common ground. Now Rin was forced to conclude, in light of all the evidence she had seen thus far, that Agatha's particular branch of Thaumaturgy was very obscure and just plain _weird_.

Rin decided to ignore the question for the moment. "Anyway, perhaps we should get to the matter at hand. There is much to discuss as you do not seem to understand the predicament that you have gotten yourself into."

"Oh! Yes, of course." The two girls seated themselves on opposite sides of the dinner table, and were shortly joined by their Servants who sat by their master's sides (or in Archer's case, leaned casually against a nearby wall). Agatha then said. "Ok, now in the simplest terms possible, can you please tell me who these people are and just how they can… do what they do."

Rin smirked as she took a lecturer's pose, enjoying the chance to one up the other woman when it came to knowledge. "You truly are ignorant of the Heavens Feel Ritual if you can't realize that these are Heroic Spirits before you." Another blank stare on Agatha's part caused Rin to sigh condescendingly. "Very well, I shall start from the beginning and give you the briefest summary I can manage. You have inadvertently joined a ritual known as the Holy Grail War. Every 60 or so years, 7 magi are chosen to be Masters, and they are allowed to summon Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes to do battle for them. They are summoned into the Servant containers that allow them to use the majority of power which they still held in life, thus accounting for their noticeable amount of power. The 7 masters then do battle with one another in secret until only one Servant remains, upon which the prize appears, the Holy Grail itself. The Grail can be used to make any wish you desire, so you can see why you are now in such an enviable position, Emiya-kun."

There. That was the most basic and general summation Rin could give. It certainly left out a great deal of important details, a fact that Agatha had not missed judging by the frown slowly spreading on her face. In truth, this was part of Rin plan; she would tease Agatha with bits and pieces of what she needed to know, and then carefully reveal more if it would be advantageous to herself. Without all the facts, Agatha would be reliant on her to get through the war, thus giving Rin a huge lead. After a few long moments of contemplation, Agatha seemed to come to a conclusion and was ready to ask her first question. The precise and calculating machine that was Rin Tohsaka's mind could adapt to anything that Agatha would throw at her.

"So, if I understand this correctly," Agatha said in a flat voice, "Your saying that everything that's happened to me tonight is because of… magic? You can't possibly be serious. There's no such thing as magic."

It was then that the precise and calculating machine that was Rin Tohsaka's mind suffered from catastrophic failure and collapsed into a pile of metaphorical rubble. "…Huh?" Was the only thing the magus could say in response.

"I mean, honestly, using all that archaic and mystical terminology." Agatha continued. "I understand how fantastic all of this seems but that's no reason to assume that you should just tell me 'it's magic' to avoid explaining it all. I'm a big girl and I know of Clark's Third Law, thank you very much. Now try again and don't skimp on the science."

"…bwuh?" Rin's speech centers were still scrambling to find the proper response. She looked around at the other two present to see if she had simply gone crazy, but fortunately the two Servants were looking at Agatha with the same bewilderment and confusion that she felt.

"Master, how can you…" Saber started to say before she trailed of, not sure of how to address this. "How can you possibly say that there is no such thing as magic?"

"Don't tell me you buy into this nonsense." Agatha said as she turned to the other blonde woman. "Besides, if there was such a thing as magic, people would use it to make their lives better. The sheer potential for profit and the betterment of mankind would be so vast that the idea that there are magic users in this day and age who remain secret from the public at large is utterly laughable."

The room was dead silent for a long moment. Then there was suddenly a snort. Three heads turned towards Archer, whose hand was clasped over his mouth and his body shook with barely contained laughter. It was a battle he lost, as soon the laughter escaped from him and he was bent over, holding his stomach at how hard his guffaws came forth.

Rin ignored her insolent Servant in favor of trying to figure out the impossibly before her. Agatha had to be toying with her. There was no other explanation. But… she seemed to certain. And no magus would make a comment like that about why they remained a secret with a straight face. Every magus knew that mysteries were finite, and too many people using them would dilute their effect to the point of uselessness. "That… you can't just…" Rin fumbled for a bit before she latched on to the obvious contradiction. "If that's the case, than how do you explain summoning Saber?!"

Agatha frowned and glanced over at her Servant. "I don't know about 'summoning'. All I know was that I was about to be stabbed one moment, and then there was a flash of light and she appeared. Not sure how that happened but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."

Rin gaped at her some more before she pointed incredulously at the object Agatha still held in her hands. "T-then how do you explain your mystic code?! How does that work if not for magic?!"

"Mystic code?" Agatha asked in confusion as she glanced down in her lap. "Do you mean my Death Ray? Because I can tell you that works by amplifying the weak nuclear force to massively accelerate elemental decay. The energy and alpha particles produced are then combined with the surrounding atmosphere to create a beam of high energy plasma."

"That's just a load of nonsense!" Rin retorted. "Your clearly a magus! I knew that there was something weird with all of your inventions!"

Agatha's face twisted in anger. "I am a _scientist_," she seethed. "not some fool who makes things she cannot explain and tries label them with mysticism. "

Rin was completely speechless. The woman before her honestly believed what she was saying, as nonsensical as it was. A master of the Holy Grail War was a magus who didn't believe in magic. What had her family taught her? Rin didn't know much about the Emiya family other than that it was only comprised of Agatha's father who died a number of years ago. Given that Agatha was clearly adopted also caused that theory to lose credibility. Was it truly possible that she was some kind of first generation prodigy or psychic that had accidently summoned a servant?

As unlikely as it was, that seemed like the only possible answer that made sense. Yes, Agatha had to be some abnormality that by pure chance had been chosen by the Grail System. Now having a logical premises to start from, Rin started to regain her composure. This was made slightly difficult by how Archer kept laughing and had by now fallen on the floor, but she persevered (She briefly considered kicking him, but decided against it as it would probably just hurt her foot). "Okay… while your naivety and denial are certain amusing, it doesn't change the fact that you have summoned a Servant. A Saber no less." Rin had to fight to keep her eyebrow from twitching as she said that. How in the hell had a novice summoned the most powerful Servant completely by accident?! Rin was an experienced magus from a long and powerful lineage, was a near prodigy in skill and power, and the best she had managed to do was summon some defective Archer who couldn't even remember who he was. It was just unfair. "You are now part of this War whether you accept it or not."

There was a silent minute where Agatha said nothing, just looking at each of the other three in the room with a look of great concentration. Eventually, she spoke. "This is all highly unbelievable, but there are several facts I have observed tonight and must accept. Fact: you two," she pointed at the Servants in the room, "Have display super human levels of physical ability, as well as the man in blue. Fact: the man in blue said he had to kill me because I had seen too much and he could not leave witnesses. Fact: you," she pointed at Rin, "have also shown an ability for which I have no ready explanation. Fact: I also have no ready explanation for how Saber appeared in my shed." Agatha sighed. "What I can conclude from this at the moment is that the lot of you have extra-normal abilities of an indeterminate nature, that you value secrecy to the point of silencing witnesses, and that there are a number of you which are intent on fighting each other." She sighed. "I guess I have to listen to what you have to say, at the least."

"Finally, you say something that makes sense." Rin muttered to herself. "Right. In any case, we have to go to the Church now. The Moderator for the War is there and you need to tell him you've joined."

"What? No I won't. Why would I want to be a part of this nonsense?"

Rin blinked. "Um, because the winner gets a wish, remember?"

"A… wish." Agatha said dryly. Her voice took on a slightly patronizing tone. "Is this grail of yours actually a genie's lamp?"

Rin shot a glare at the other woman. "Don't be snide. It is much more complicated than that, but in essence, yes."

Agatha frowned. "What are its limits?"

"As far as I know, it has none."

A snort. "Oh really? So if I wished that hydrogen had no valence electrons instead of one, would that work?"

"Uh," Rin said, trying to remember enough of chemistry to figure out just what that meant. She usually just forgot about subjects she didn't care about after that particular class had ended, and pretty much every science save geology (as it related to her gem craft) fell into that category. "I would think so." She eventually said.

"Because that would massively restructured the shape of the entire universe and at the very least destroy all life as we know it." Was the flat response. "I've seen things tonight that will make me need to broaden my horizons a little, but I'm not going to believe the 'magic cup' is capable of altering the entire universe. The energy requirement alone would create a black hole."

"Fine! Then don't wish for that!" Rin said in irritation. "Look, the point is that you can use it to get anything you want."

"And it will perfectly interpret my command?" Agatha asked, still skeptical. "I have read far too many stories where wishes have gone horribly awry to not think there won't be some hidden price attached. Besides, anything I actually want I will obtain someday with my own skill. Just wishing for it to happen would make it pointless. In short, I really don't see the need to go along with this."

Whatever Rin was going to say was cut off when Saber slammed her fist into the table, the wood creaking under the force. "That is unacceptable, Master! I will not allow you to just throw away the Grail!"

"Not allow me?" Agatha said incredulously. "I believe I can do what I please. Besides, why do you care so much?"

"Because the Servant who wins the war is also allowed a wish!" Saber said. "It is not just yourself you are fighting for!"

"Oh," the other woman said in surprise. "Well, I'm sorry about that. I'm just not sure there's anything that I want that's worth getting into a series of death matches and dealing with what by all accounts is some kind of nebulous reality warping device."

"But the Grail choose you! There must be something you desire!" Saber insisted. "A past mistake you need corrected, to change something now which you don't have the power to do on your own, to bring back someone you have lost…"

"None of that-" Agatha started before she cut herself off, her eyes going wide. "Wait, bring back someone I've lost? Do you mean… back from the dead?"

Rin interjected at this point. "Now this I can absolutely assure you the Grail is capable of. The entire basis of the Servant system uses an incomplete version of one of the true Sorceries; Heavens Feel, the materialization of the soul. These two", she gestured to the Heroic Spirits in the room. "are legendary heroes from the past, given temporary bodies for the duration of the War. The Grail itself will hold enough power to create a permanent body to attach the soul to."

Agatha hesitated, look at the two in question. "Is this true?" she asked, and they nodded. She looked off to the side and brought her hand up to her mouth, her face bearing an expression of uncertainty and conflict. "I… I don't…" she trailed off, trying to find words. Eventually she turned back to the rest of the room. "I… need to think about this. And I will consider your feelings on the matter, Saber." She added.

The Servant nodded stiffly, this concession satisfying her for the moment.

"Good. Then can we go to the church now?" Rin asked.

"Of course not. I said I'm considering it. Besides, I don't want to go outside again tonight. I already know that there's at least one person out there who wants to kill me, plus who knows else when the find out I've become involved in all this. I'm not leaving my house until I have a full spread of sentry guns and trip mines set up."

Rin was about to argue with the woman some more, but the headache that had been building ever since she had started this conversation was telling her to quit while she was ahead. The magus dropped her face into her hand. "You know what? Fine. I've had enough of this craziness tonight." She got to her feet, Archer getting up off the floor behind her (he had finished being amused by the situation, it would seem.) "Just remember to be wary from now on, and don't expect my help in the future. We are both Masters after all. There can be only one winner."

Rin turned to make her leave, but stopped when Agatha called out "Wait!" When she turned around, she found that Agatha was not looking at her but rather her Servant. "Thank you for saving me back at the school."

Archer looked surprised at this before his expression settled into its usual scowl. "You shouldn't thank me. If I had known you were going to become a Master, I wouldn't have done so."

"Oh," Agatha sounded a little disappointed , but pressed on regardless. "Still, even when you thought I was a civilian, you didn't have to save me. From what I've been getting so far, most of the people involved in this 'War' would think the correct and easier thing to do would be to let me die. It's nice to know that there are people out there who try to save everyone that they can. I don't know if I could do that."

In the span of a few moments, Archer's expression shifted rapidly between anger, confusion, and then settled on something unreadable. He then turned on his heel and stormed out of the building, leaving the three women left to think _what was that about?_

* * *

The light from the summoning circle faded, and Medea, the Witch of Betrayals, drew her first breath in centuries. The Grail filled her mind with information of the age she was summoned to and she suppressed a small chuckle of mixed mirth and contempt. _Magi have become so pitiful since my time,_ she thought to herself. _I'm not sure if I'll be able to stand one of them giving me orders._

Well, it wasn't like she would be totally out of options if her Master did turn out to be… undesirable. Medea certain had other ways of reaching the Grail if necessary.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." A voice said, snapping the witch out of her musings. She chastised herself lightly, as it would be prudent to see just how useful her Master could be before she went about killing the person.

Said person was a woman, a little on the short side with what some might call a stout figure. Still, it did not detract from her appearance, as she had ample curves in just the right places. She had long blond hair which framed a round face, the slightly wide mouth on which was currently upturned in a smirk.

Medea replied with a smile of her own, though it held no warmth. "I am Servant Caster. Am I to assume that you are my Master?"

"You assume correctly. We are going to accomplish such great things my dear Servant." The woman said, putting a hand on her hip. "Though if I may inquire as to your identity? I had no reagent belonging to a great hero to work with, so I had let the Grail chose a Servant for me."

Medea's smile continued. "I'm afraid that would not be wise, Master. Who knows what might happen if someone managed to coerce the information from you." In truth, she simply wanted to make it easier for herself if and when the time came to dispose of the woman in front of her. "However, if you do not think it too rude in light of my own refusal, could I perhaps have the name of my Master?"

The other woman did not seem offended by this, merely giving an amused titter. "Oh, you coy girl you. I'll find out eventually. As for my own name, well, I see no problem with that. I never really cared for name of the family I married into, so you my dear," she said with a growing grin on her face. "may call me Lucrezia."

* * *

A/N: A thought occurred to me as I was writing this chapter. There's a fic which I'm sure at least some of you have heard of call _Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_. It's basically a story for what if Harry was a prodigy and a rationalist thinker before he went to Hogwarts (it's also quite good, so I recommend checking it out if you haven't already). It's inspired a number of other Rationalist!fics to varying degrees of success. So I had a thought:

A Rationalist!Shirou FSN fic could totally work.

Agatha will be showing shades of this throughout the fic, but I'll be playing her too close to her actual character for it to go that far. So, I think someone should totally get on that.

Late Edit: I've gotten enough comments on Agatha's behavior that I feel I should comment myself. Namely on how dismissive on magic she is. Now, in the Nasuverse, magi do behave like legitimate scientists, and study magic as a science. This is absolutely true. However, Agatha doesn't know any of this. Agatha associates 'magic' with things like quantum mysticism, astrology. and other pseudo-scientific bull. Her reaction is also a bit knee-jerk as no one who's spent their life studying how things work likes to be told in one night that they're completely wrong. Once she calms down a bit, thinks things through and starts looking for evidence, she'll come around fairly quickly.

Of course, this was apparently not clear from what I wrote, so I may end up rewriting that scene a bit at some point.


End file.
